A total of 320 athletes and support staff travelled back from Rio in a gold-nosed British Airways Boeing 747 with “victoRIOus” emblazoned on the side.
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The athletes, who bring home 67 medals including 27 gold and 23 silver, look in fine spirits, with footage emerging of them dancing on the plane the moment the seatbelt signs were turned off.
Other heroes of Rio, including cycling golden couple Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, had already arrived back in the United Kingdom before the official Team GB flight.
Double-gold winning gymnast Max Whitlock, boxer Nicola Adams, who retained her title, and Alistair Brownlee, the first man to win successive Olympic triathlons, were also among the passengers.
The stars were greeted with cheers, applause and screams as many supporters rushed to embrace their loved ones after weeks spent thousands of miles apart.
The Games, competed in by athletes with a range of disabilities, begin in Rio on Wednesday September 7 and run until September 18. I think we all felt that nearly couldn’t be replicated, it couldn’t happen again, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Stars including swimmer Adam Peaty and rower Helen Glover will face a media press conference shortly at the Sofitel Heathrow hotel.
Peaty added you could not afford to doubt your own ability at an Olympics and “you’ve got to attack and that’s what we did”.
Kayaker Rachel Cawthorn tweeted: “Just arrived home in a@teamgb chartered @British_airways plane and it’s #greattobeBAck!”
Asked if there was any chance the Government would change its mind, Sir Hugh said there had been “absolutely no indication” that it would.
“You are aiming for four years and thinking, “I want to be at the front next time”.
Yet they will touch down at London Heathrow to even better news that the British Olympic Association [BOA] has been granted a 29% increase in funding for elite athletes, with officials already eyeing a better medal return than the 67 that were won in Rio de Janeiro in the most successful Games Britain has ever seen.
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Of the 366 athletes who went to the Rio Games for Team GB, 130 of them – just over 35% – returned with a medal, including every member of the 15-strong track cycling team.
